


Spontaneous Gravity

by BlackCats



Category: RWBY
Genre: Battle Stuff, F/M, Friendship Stuff, Light Relationship stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-27 15:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/980567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCats/pseuds/BlackCats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ren, and Nora, and one girl's ambition to bag the *biggest* monster for their exam.<br/>(Ren, and the tranquility he knows only when she's smiling.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spontaneous Gravity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Azzy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azzy/gifts).



An ominous mist had crept into the Emerald Forest, twining throughout upraised roots and clawing branches. The usually green, beautiful woods had turned gray and silver in the white moonlight. Long shadows stretched away into the darkness, creating jagged edges that could have been the curve of claws or vicious fangs.

“Ooh, I know what we should look for! How about another Deathstalker? A Steeljaw? An Emperor Leo? I really don’t think we should go for the little guys like the Ursas or those wolves, but—oh, oh, maybe if we just hunted a whole _slew_ of them, it’d be enough to pass the exam! Tens, dozens, _hundreds_ of Grimm!”

 The students of Beacon Academy were currently prowling the woodland at the peak of the night, searching for a Grimm mighty enough to impress their instructors. This was no ordinary task; it was an _exam_ , something to really test the mettle of the students. Everyone was split up into pairs, and they were to hunt a Grimm (or several if needed) until the color-coordinated flare lit up the starry expanse of the sky. If they saw theirs, it meant they passed.

“How do you think they’re watching us? Are there cameras all throughout the forest? Do you think they’re disguised as ferns? Secret tree cameras! Secret cameras in the water! Secret dirt cameras! What do you think, Ren? Do you think they can see us? _Heeey_ , Professor Ozpin!”

From the experience of Lie Ren, he had figured out long ago that dealing with Nora Valkyrie was like dealing with the loss of gravity. If one didn’t _carefully_ center themselves, didn’t _carefully_ ensure that their feet were firmly on the ground, her endless, sunny chatter would send a person flying up into the clouds. It probably wasn’t possible to reach the same level of Cloudcuckooland as her, but you never knew.

If it came to a battle between Nora and logic, the latter was more likely to give way to the whims of the former.

“Nora,” he said, calm and focused as ever. His near-constant tranquility was a hard-won thing. “Never mind the cameras for now. Let’s just keep looking.”

Her already huge grin somehow got even bigger. “Right away, Ren!” She trilled. “Where are we going? How far in do you think we should go? I wonder if anyone else has found a Grimm yet, I mean, it’s night so the forest is just _swarming_ with them, but do you think they’re good enough to really impress the professors, or—“

Ren paused and put a hand out to grab Nora’s sleeve before she kept walking on ahead. She continued to ramble on for a moment before silencing herself, curiously following his gaze. His eyes scanned the rows of trees before them, and something caught his attention. Trampled plants, earth pounded flat…any Hunter or Huntress worth their salt knew how to track by trails. Something large had created this disturbance in the otherwise untouched leaves and bushes. It didn’t take a genius to see the splintered bark and knocked over saplings though.

Staring up, he could see that the signs of something _huge_ having had passed by here were getting more obvious by the moment. The canopy was bent and cracked in various places, leaving some branches drooping forlornly.

He looked behind him. What puzzled him was how the trail began _here_. There should have been a huge, clear path coming from some direction…The Grimm that had crashed through clearly had no grace and was too bulky to need it.

“Whatcha thinking about, Ren?” Nora asked. “Are we going after this one? Whatever made this had to be _enormous_!” The word rose to almost a shriek in her excitement. “We’ll get the highest grade in the class! It’ll be amazing, super, _awesome_ if we bag it!”

“I’m…not too sure,” he admitted. Ren turned to face her. “Whatever caused this was…gigantic. We’re trying to get a good score, not get ourselves killed. It might be too much for just the two of us, Nora.”

She flitted a hand. “Nonsense.” Skipping past him a bit, she whipped around to face him and beamed. “We’ve learned a lot since coming to Beacon, and no one’s better at teamwork than us! I say we can do it! Please?” She clasped her hands together. “Pretty please? The prettiest please? _If_ you please?”

He met her pleading stare for a moment before shifting his eyes to the side, unconvinced. “Eh…”

“C’mon, c’mon, _c’mon_ , Ren! I know it’ll be dangerous, but we’re Hunters! It’s what we do! Let’s just give it a shot, okay?” Nora fluttered her eyelashes in a teasing way. “You’ll protect me, won’tcha Ren?”

There was that anti-grav of hers again. She was trying to pull his head up into the carefree clouds she practically lived on.

And he was going to allow it, just this once.

“…All right. But if it’s too much for us, we’re running. No questions asked.”

“Yay!” She applauded wildly, bouncing in place with excitement. “This’ll be _marvelous_! C’mon, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

Nora took off like a bullet and Ren paled, chasing after her. “Wait, Nora, hold on…!”

As they followed the exceedingly obvious game trail, Ren felt his skin crawl. He had a bad feeling about this. But with Nora talking a mile a minute, there was hardly time for him to get a word in edgewise. He kicked off of the remnants of a stump, leaping from a toppled tree trunk and back onto the ground. He could see where something had snagged the flowers and bushes, dragging their contents down the length of the makeshift road before leaving them scattered haphazardly every which way.

The absence of other Grimm in the area was further unsettling. He reached inside himself for that cautious tranquility, trying to calm his thoughts. _Expel doubt and fear. I don’t need it right now. Let’s just…_

He kept his eyes on Nora up ahead.

 _Concentrate on the here and now._ For the present, at least.

Considering his partner appeared thoroughly convinced that they could tangle with any monster and come out all right, he didn’t wish to rain on her parade without cause.

“Ooh! Ren, Ren, check this out!”

He trotted up to her side, attempting to catch his breath, regarding the sight before him. At their feet was a sharp slope—though not too steep that one couldn’t walk back up it—and it proceeded to dip down into a rather wide ravine of sorts. Gray rocks formed the walls and scraggly plants clung to the surface, shivering in the evening breeze. A cave was to their lower left, pitch black and wide like a predator’s mouth, rimmed with jagged rock spires on the ceiling.

“It must be in there!” Nora braced herself to jump down, but Ren put a hand on her shoulder.

“Wait. Let me go first.”

She cocked her head to the side for a moment; however, the confusion didn’t last long. She smiled again and nodded.

Gathering himself, Ren leapt, skidding down the incline. He heard Nora prancing behind him. Once they reached the bottom, the pair skirted along, eyes and ears trained for any signs of trouble. The caution proved to be unnecessary, because they made it to the cavern unchallenged.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the Dust-powered light that had been administered to all the students before the exam had begun. He clicked it on, broadcasting a wide swathe of bright white. All that it turned up was what one would expect. Dirt, stone, and some shriveled flora.

“Stay behind me.”

Nora nodded enthusiastically and kept quiet for once as they prowled deeper into what had to be the lair of a Grimm.  He peeked at her from the corners of his eyes, watching how she tensed up. She wasn’t scared, that much was for sure, but the glimmer of excitement in her gaze was dangerous.

For the monsters.

He smiled a bit and pressed on. The air was cold and damp, sending a chill into his very bones. Nora gripped onto his arm, pressing closer to him, and he could feel her warmth through his clothing.

Ren froze, casting the light around as he sensed an opening. The space had grown _larger_ …It was just a feeling he had. When he directed the glow upwards, he was rewarded with the sight of a very high ceiling. A big, clawed-out gap was cut in at a diagonal angle, ripped straight into the otherwise unyielding rock.

“…This is bad,” he muttered, but Nora was unconvinced. She bounced forward and observed it all in awe.

All the energy she had been holding back exploded like a geyser. “Wow, wow, _wow_! Ren, Ren, _look at these claw marks_! They’re as wide as I am! And over there, Ren, over there! These _bones_! They’re completely picked clean! Isn’t it amazing? It’s _unbelievable_!”

There was something strange here. Ren swept the light across the area once more. A great big pile of rubble was to the right of the room. He was willing to bet it had fallen from the ceiling—

Wait.

That was too much debris. Even if it had toppled down from that gash.

“Nora…”

“Whoa! Ren, I see something!” In an instant she had Magnhild in her hand, artillery form. She shot off a grenade that burst into brilliant pink and auburn light, eliciting a thrashing reaction from what she was targeting.

Ren noticed a thick, lean, scaly body that was plated with familiar bone-like shells extending from the mound of scree. It was a Grimm all right, and for a moment he even mistook it as a snake, but—

“Nora!”

She looked back at him, intrigued. “Hmm?”

“Get away from it!” Ren drew his Jade Dragons and released a hailstorm of bullets across the twitching, spasming Grimm. It vanished back into the rock hill with a final jerk.

“Huh? Why? We’ve fought bigger things than…this…be…fore…” Nora’s eyes stretched open wide as they both watched the spare stones become dislodged.

Something was standing up.

Something _big_.

A low hiss filled the air as pebbles and the like skittered down the sides of the beast. It rose, up and up and _up_ , wings stretching open. The tips brushed the ends of the cavern. A reptilian skull turned their way, one scarlet eye fixated upon them. It was larger than Ren’s own head. The Grimm was coated nearly all over in protective armor, and he realized that the thing Nora had just struck at had been—

“Oh…So…That was its _tail_ …and the whole thing is the…”

“Nora! We need to get out of here!”

Ren snatched the back of her shirt and hauled her with him just as a paw came crashing down where she had been standing a heartbeat prior. Nora scrambled around so that she was facing the right way and darted off with him back the way they had come.

The Leviathan roared behind them, and the flash of intense ginger was the only warning Ren had to put up a defense. Thrusting Nora behind him, he raised his hands, and—

A torrent of flame engulfed the pair, filling their senses with heat and smoke and the color orange. Ren grimaced, keeping his hands up, palms open, throwing the power of his Aura against the dark energy of the Grimm.

Nora, wisely, pressed as closely to him as she could, tucking in every body part so as to not risk anything being outside of Ren’s protective sphere.

Just when he thought he had reached his limit, the fire ceased. He slouched over, panting, everything spinning before him. Sparks of white flickered off of his fingers, disappearing before they even hit the ground.

The Leviathan growled in fury.

“Ren? Are you all right?” Nora asked, losing her chipper tone for once. Anxiety had crept into her voice.

“I’ll…I’ll be fine. We’ve got to keep moving…”

He didn’t see her frown as she watched him, but he _did_ see her stoop down and lift him up onto her back.

“Nora—What are you doing? We’ll never get out in time this way…” His lungs felt starved for air. He hadn’t exuded that much Aura at once in a long time, and the drain had exacted a heavy toll. Ren knew full well that he’d recover, but they didn’t have even five minutes to spare.

The Grimm was coming.

“Don’t worry about it!” She grinned at him over her shoulder, blue eyes sparkling. “Just leave it to me!”

He felt every single one of her muscles coil like a cat about to spring, and then Nora _ran_. He knew she was fast and often left others in her dust, but it was stunning to think that she possessed the strength to carry him and sprint at the same time.

He supposed that hammer of hers _did_ probably take some muscle power to wield, in retrospect.

The Dust-light bobbed in front of them as Nora hared her way out of the caverns. She hesitated only briefly when they reached a fork in the path, but Ren recalled which way they needed to go. The Grimm had given up pounding after him, and he listened to it backtrack the way it had come.

“It’s going to fly out from the roof,” he murmured. Nora nodded her understanding.

They came to a halt at the mouth of the cave. She set him down and Ren took in several deep breaths, centering himself. He felt the spiritual weariness setting into his insides, but his body had already mostly recovered from Aura stress. They ducked behind a boulder close by and craned their heads upwards.

“It’s circling above us,” he said.

Nora spoke in a feverish series of whispers. “You were right, it’s _completely_ my fault! I should have listened to you when you said this was too dangerous, and now you’re probably really tired and we’re sort of cornered and we’re _really_ far from the school, and—“ He saw her eyes harden as she glanced up. “I’ve got an idea! But you’ve gotta work with me!”

They quieted down as a single flare shot up into the sky. It soared into the heavens like a firework, but rather than exploding, it just faded away with little fanfare. It had been blazing yellow and a deep, smoky black—probably Blake and Yang, then.

Ren shook his head. “It’s not your fault, Nora.” He surveyed her twinkling eyes and showed a small, wry smile. “What’s this idea of yours?”

He listened to her as she babbled away, becoming more and more discontent by the second. The Leviathan’s mighty shadow swept across the ravine again and again as it spiraled, but it made no move to pounce. He knew that moment how a rabbit in its warren had to feel. The hawk was waiting.

“No. Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”

She pouted. “ _Reeen_ , c’mon! We’ve been hunting together for years! This is really important; I need you to trust me!”

“I _do_ trust you. But what you’re asking—“

Nora placed her hands together pleadingly. “It’s our only real shot at beating this thing, getting out of here, and passing the exam! I know I can do this, Ren!”

He clenched his jaw momentarily. “I’m sure you can too, it’s just…”

“I’ll be fine. I promise!”

Ren stared into her shining eyes and let out a deep sigh, standing up. “All right.”

Letting out an excited squeal, Nora threw her arms around him and jumped up and down. “Oh my gosh, you won’t regret this! It’ll be _great_ , you’ll see!” She suddenly dropped him, gasping a bit. “We’ve gotta get started right away!”

With that, she moved straight out into the open, cocked Magnhild, and launched a grenade into the sky.

Ren felt as if she had put her usual anti-gravity into _reverse_. Rather than sending him floating upwards, this time, _everything_ about Nora was crushing his bones, weighing him down with dread. He took in a shuddering breath, closing his eyes, concentrating on acquiring peace of mind. He needed to be relaxed for this if he was going to be capable of helping her when she needed it.

When he spoke again, his voice was strong and even. “Nora, it’s coming in at the wrong angle, I’ll have to turn it around.”

She nodded at the obvious and skipped backwards with a giggle just as the Leviathan landed with a crashing thud. It released a bone-chilling howl of sorts, falling onto all fours and slinking at Nora like a hunting cat. Its back was to Ren, and he emptied another round of bullets onto its neck and shoulders.

The Grimm drew up short, rumbling threateningly, pivoting to face him with its gigantic wings halfway open. They couldn’t spread apart properly thanks to the ravine’s enclosure. He flipped backwards, alighting neatly behind the boulder just as a short spurt of flame seared where he had been standing. Ren peeked around the edge, watching Nora stealthily—and quickly!—make her way to the Grimm’s other side.

The initial plan was to keep the Leviathan switching targets. It had enough power in one blow to kill someone, so it was better that it was heckled and distracted rather than murderously intent on a single person.

“Yoohoo! Over here!” Nora called, swinging her hammer down on the monster’s right paw. A cracking noise resounded through the air, and the Grimm gnashed its teeth furiously, facing her now.

A little closer…It wasn’t in the right position yet. The Leviathan needed to get at least partway into the cave’s mouth. Climbing atop the boulder, Ren sprang onto a thin ledge, grabbing a jutting rock to aid his balance. Only one foot was braced against anything, the other hung over empty air.

Nora was dancing every which way, avoiding the swipes and slams of her opponent. “Missed me! Missed me! Now Ren’s gotta kiss me!” She tossed him a wink as she spun away from jaws stronger than a bear trap.

He blew a sigh—though he’d have smiled if the situation didn’t require all his attention—realizing what he needed to do. Even Nora couldn’t keep that up forever. Grunting, he dropped down behind the lashing tail of the Leviathan, ducking beneath it and entering the barest fringes of the cavern once more. Ren released a flurry of bullets across the beast’s thighs and lower back, and when it predictably whirled around to face him—its crimson eyes were smoldering—he took a running start, and slid beneath it.

Right underneath its stomach he went, so close that he could see every individual ridge in its armor, rolling to his feet and pelting away just as it dropped its weight, intending to crush him. It was only a second too late.

“Ooh! Ren, that was amazing!” She clapped her hands excitedly.

“Now, Nora!” Ren turned around and shot at the base of the stalactites that were lined up along the upper lip of the cavern—the very same ones he had noticed earlier. The impacts of the bullets loosened up every single one of the sizable stone spikes noticeably, and even caused one to fall altogether.

Nora wasted not a single instant. She slammed her hammer down and vaulted skyward, flying up onto the Leviathan’s immense back. Twisting around in midair, he watched as she crashed Magnhild against the top of the stalactite, practically _nailing_ it into the only unarmored places on the Grimm; the gaps between one bony plate and the other that were on its shoulder, thigh, and wing joints.

Though it had tried to turn around again to follow Ren’s slide beneath it, it hadn’t been fast enough, and it had been caught with its torso facing the left cavern wall, half in and half out. This left it at the perfect vulnerable angle for Nora to swat at every lingering stalactite, sending them hurtling down onto its body. She jammed them deeper into place, _laughing_ as she did so, swooping up and down repeatedly as every shockwave bounce from her hammer sent her flying back into the air.

Ren watched her in outright astonishment. Her fighting style consisted of a lot of brute force, but when it really came down to it, she was…a really graceful person.

And surely, no one else could ever do what she did.

Taking aim, he concentrated all his fire on the Leviathan’s eye that he could see, blinding it. It bucked and struggled, its movements becoming weaker as Nora just kept moving along its body, driving every rock tooth deeper and deeper into its flesh.

One wing shot open unexpectedly, clipping Ren across the cheek. He flinched, but ignored the flow of blood. He could see that its heavy footsteps and flapping wings were causing the walls of the cave to tremble, and he frowned. “Nora, that’s eno—“

He saw it occur as if in slow motion.

The roof was cracking, fissures sprouting, coming apart at the seams. The Leviathan’s body was beginning to disappear in fine threads of shadowy black, but its death throes were upsetting the rocky structure even more. The whole thing began to come down with a rumble far more terrifying than any Grimm’s roar.

“ _Nora_!”

Without thinking, without pausing, without any preparation whatsoever, Ren dropped his guns and threw himself at her. Nora had stumbled and slipped from the Leviathan’s back as it thrashed, and he caught her in midair. They hit the ground hard, rolling over, as the entire mouth of the cave closed with a tremendous _boom_!

Ren didn’t move as a tremor passed through the earth. He pulled Nora close to him, feeling her heartbeat—surprisingly calm—beating against his chest. When everything had become still, he leaned back slightly, looking at her without a word being said.

She just giggled and tilted her head to the side a bit, smiling. “Told ya it’d be fine!”

Relief crashed through his body. She had some scrapes and bruises but nothing too serious. Magnhild was with her, lying to the side, and…and…

They both looked up as a pink and green flare took off, easily clearing the trees and glittering brighter than the stars. They didn’t speak until it had faded.

“Oh! We did it! We passed the exam! I wonder what score we got. Do you think it’s a high one? There’s no way it wasn’t _the best score_ of them all! I mean, I’m sure everyone else did _great_ too but we beat a Leviathan! Do you think they’ve got video of that? Do you think the professors will show us?”

He just looked at her.

Nora actually paused. “Ren? Are you okay?” There was a bright sincerity in her voice, in her words, as it had been since they were younger.

Ren smiled. Slightly. It wasn’t very large but it was there, and he noticed that she instinctively widened her own. Placing a hand on her cheek, he closed his eyes and kissed her forehead. “Good job, Nora,” he said simply.

“I—uh—“ She had gone pink. And _speechless_! He had never thought he’d live to see the day.

He chuckled very briefly, standing up and going to retrieve his Jade Dragons. “Let’s get back to the school.”

There was a little delay, and then he felt all the air leave his lungs in a big _whoosh_ as Nora pounced onto his back. “ _Ren_!” Her joyous laughter echoed in his ears, but the force of the jump and her weight proved too much for the exhausted Ren, and he collapsed onto his face after staggering forward a step or two.

“Oh…Sorry.” She still sounded like she was giggling, and she was still sitting on him.

His only reply was a groan.

~***~

Gravity was in reverse again.

Every step felt light as they traveled back to Beacon. Nora’s little stunt before had caused him to twist his leg at an awkward angle. She had apologized a thousand times in ten seconds but Ren had waved it off, assuring her that the slight limp would be gone by morning.

They were jumped by the Grimm only once during the time it took them to get to the arranged meeting place for the students, and it had only been the usual Ursa. Nothing they couldn’t handle with ease. As they continued to make their way back, Ren spotted a red and white flare go off, followed by a gold and maroon one not long after.

That was good. Jaune, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Weiss. Counting the flash from before that had probably been Blake’s and Yang’s, that made all their friends.

The starlit clearing was only half-filled with students. So they weren’t the first to complete the exam, but they weren’t the last either. Ren honestly didn’t care, he just wanted to ensure that everyone was all right, and then get to bed.

He sat down beneath a tree with Nora happily skipping around him. Professor Ozpin stood with Glynda at his side, nodding with a faint smile at the pair before they continued to pace among the students, checking in on them.

Ren was going to assume that meant they had passed. He slumped back against the tree, and Nora dropped right beside him.

“So I was thinking!” There was a tense, excited, expectant pause and he opened one eye.

“About what?”

“That we should plan a victory party! I mean after this we’ve got a whole _week_ off and I thought we should do something really cool with everyone! What do you think, huh? It’s a good idea, right?”

He chuckled slightly. “Sure.”  It took Ren about half a minute later to notice that Nora had gone silent. He sat up straight and gazed at her, his expression soft and curious. She had bit her lip and was fidgeting with a strand of hair.  “What’s wrong?”

“…Sorry,” she said. “You were right, that was _super dangerous_ and we only beat the Leviathan by sheer luck! And—“

Ren shook his head again. “No, I think we only defeated it because of you.”

She blinked. He saw her open her mouth to ask a barrage of questions and hurried on.

“You were the one who put the killing blows on it. I just distracted it.”

“Yeah, sure, but you blocked that _entire spray of fire_ earlier! That was amazing!”

He shrugged and she pushed him lightly, grinning from ear to ear. “Stop being so modest! We’ve got stuff to plan! So how about it, Ren, hmm?”

Folding his arms behind his head and closing his eyes, Ren chuckled quietly. “Sure, Nora.”

All was as it should be, and nothing brought him more peace than that.

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a combination prompt/giftfic for my friend's friend, Azzy! I hope it's to everyone's liking, as it was to hers~


End file.
